The copperhead is not a rattler, though its vibrating tail amid dry leaves will sometimes hum like one. (This is also true of the blacksnake.) Its bite is very poisonous. It is found amid rocks and in the woods, and is at home from New England and the Atlantic coast west to Indiana and south to Texas. This snake is seldom more than three feet long. Its color is light reddish-brown with bands of rich chestnut which are narrow on the back and wide at the sides. The underpart is whitish with dark spots on the abdomen. The head is generally coppery in color but not always. In Texas the colors of the copperhead are stronger, the bands and head are decidedly reddish, and the bands have narrow white borders.
Harlequin Snake and Coral-Snake
The harlequin snake and the coral-snake are so similar in color and in habits, one description for both will answer our purpose. They are southern snakes, beginning in southern Indiana and extending south. They are quite poisonous, but of such retiring habits as hardly to be classed as dangerous. Most of their time is spent hidden under the sand and in the ground, but when they do come out their colors are so brilliant as not to be mistaken. On the harlequin snake the colors are bright coral-red, yellow, and black, which alternate in stripes that encircle the body. Its head is always banded with a broad yellow stripe. The coral-snake is much the same in color, and only a close observer would notice the difference. The coral-snake is also found in Arizona.
Water-Moccasin, Cottonmouth
The water-moccasin is ugly, and ugly all the way through. Its deadly viciousness is not redeemed by any outward beauty. Its average length is three and a half feet, though it is occasionally longer. Its unlovely body is thick and the color of greenish mud; the sides are paler and have wide, blackish bands. There are dark bands from the eyes to the mouth and above them there are pale streaks. The top of the head is very dark. The abdomen is yellow with splashes of brown or black. Heavy shields overhang the eyes and give a sinister expression to their angry glare. When suddenly approached the moccasin opens wide its white-lined mouth, and one then understands why it is called cottonmouth.
This snake does not coil before its strikes, but vibrates its tail slowly and watches its prey with mouth open. The moccasin is decidedly a southern snake, and girls of the south know that its home is along the edges of bayous and in the swamps. It is frequently seen with its head and a small part of its body out of water while the rest is submerged, but at times it will be found on a water-soaked log or on underbrush and low boughs of trees that overhang the water. The bite is very poisonous.
Other Snakes
There are many other snakes in the United States, but they are not venomous. Here is one thing to remember: you need never fear a snake found in this country which has lengthwise stripes, that is, stripes running from head to tail. Daniel C. Beard tells me that he has learned this from observation, and Raymond L. Ditmars, curator of reptiles in the New York Zoological Park, agrees with him.
While the lengthwise-striped snakes are harmless, others not striped in this way are harmless, too. The blacksnake, though he looks an ugly customer and, when cornered, will sometimes show fight, is not venomous and his bite is not deep. It is, therefore, wanton cruelty to kill every snake that crosses your path simply because it happens to be a snake. Kephart, in his book of "Camping and Woodcraft," says in regard to identifying the poisonous snake:
"The rattlesnake, copperhead, and cottonmouth are easily distinguished from all other snakes, as all three of them bear a peculiar mark, or rather a pair of marks, that no other animal possesses. This mark is the pit, which is a deep cavity on each side of the face between the nostrils and the eye, sinking into the upper jaw-bone."